getting back to my roots: my journey in true health and natural living

It’s something I do wonder quite often. What must my neighbors think of my homesteading ways? Do they think I’m strange when I cut the front yard with my reel mower? What must they think when I hang all my laundry out on the clothesline? Do they wonder about the piles of dirt, leaves, and food scraps in the backyard? Maybe they’re curious about the big white barrel attached to our downspout.

I wonder if they are curious or if they simply write me off as a hippie.

My initial response might be that I don’t really care one way or the other. And truly, if someone wants to just write me off as a lunatic, that’s OK. I’m secure enough in my own life decisions to not let that affect me. But I think if I’m completely honest, I want them to be curious.

I Want to Be a Catalyst for Change

It’s a desire of my heart to spread life in whatever shape, form, fashion, or package it comes in. Flowers blooming, encouraging words spoken, immune systems being built up naturally, fresh air flowing through open windows, soil being built, natural resources being saved, creativity abounding.

I think back to my first exposures to real food. It began with a friend who was taking a distance learning nutrition course talking about the importance of organic milk. Sounded important to me. I started buying organic milk, carrots, grapes, etc. Then another friend and mentor explained the pasteurization and homogenization processes to me. It was all so very complicated at the time, and it mostly went in one ear and out the other. But the fact that it was important to these two friends was still impressed upon me.

I was being primed for my complete 180 degree nutrition change that would come just months later.

So it’s not my goal to convince every random person I meet that their way of life sucks and they should abandon everything they’ve ever known to embrace something different.

I want to plant and water seeds of change in anyone who is willing to listen or notice.

I Want Them to Notice

Here’s the deal. I don’t want to be different just for the sake of being different. Or anti-establishment. Or judgmental against those who don’t choose to live the way my husband and I do.

But I do want it to be obvious that I am different from most of society today. If any philosophy, concept, or precept is important to you, shouldn’t it run it’s course through the whole of your life? And shouldn’t it also then be obvious to other people that those philosophies, concepts, or precepts are guiding your choices and your actions?

Of course, you can take that to it’s logical conclusion and berate me for using toilet paper when I challenge other readers to commit to not buying anything disposable for a month. Such a hypocrite, I know. (Sarcasm there, in case you were wondering.) But hopefully we can all see the point I’m trying to make about being different.

If the majority of people are fat, sick, and nearly dead, don’t you want to differentiate yourself from them? Don’t you want to make as many choices as possible that will lead to life, health, & fitness?

That’s the goal in my life. I want LIFE! And I want other people to notice and want the same.

What about you? Do your neighbors think you’re weird? What do you think about that?

This post is #4 in the Growing Green series in honor of Earth Day on April 22. You can find other great posts related to TEACHING green this week on these blogs:

15 Comments

I like your thought about making them curious. That’s a good way to look at it. I’m more likely to think the way I live is normal (because it makes total sense to me) and then get surprised when I discover others don’t prioritize the same things as me.

I love the picture of the clothes hanging between the trees. I grew up in PA and my gramma hung her clothes in like manner; she also used a 1″x2″ broad to prop them up. I often wonder the same about my neighbors – one day they might wish they’d done the same. :) I enjoyed the read and the reminder of my gram. Vicky

Thanks for this post! It has helped articulate a lot what I try to tell people when they ask why I’m such a hippy :) I live in an older neighbourhood with lots of Italians and young families. I often wonder what they think about my laundry lines, constant attempts and natural gardening and wandering bare foot on the sidewalk.

we have always done this,grew up with this,why change what works best.i love the smell of bed clothes that are sun dried!towels are a little rough but feel good.plants watered with rain water from the barrel grow better.this way of life is not new,some call it green,but it is just natural commonsense living.the rewards are good health and happiness,enjoy your blessings every day.

I often wonder if our neighbors think we’re weird too. We always have people stop in their cars and ask us if our reel mower actually works when we mow the front lawn.
I hang the clothes on the line whenever I can (nearly every day) and we started a garden this year and have backyard chickens in the middle of the city where the majority of the urban population doesn’t even know what real food is- they’re used to buying processed “food”.
I hope that our “weirdness” sparks at least curiosity and maybe some change in those around us to be more sustainable and use what resources we have to help others learn more about real food, organic gardening, etc.
Good article!

Someone commented on the “hippy” thing. This was the way things were done in my generation, (65 yrs.) and older. I cut the grass in the side yard with a reel mower, my mother hung clothes on the line. We went barefoot a lot and had a back yard garden. My father hunted and processed half a hog in the late summer/fall for country hams and sausage. That was the best sausage and country ham you could ever taste!

My aunts and grandmother made most of their (and the grandkids) clothing, curtains, etc. They cooked real food, canned and were skilled in the home arts.

I’ts amazing to me how people don’t really have any “life skills” today. The things that we should really be learning are not considered important now that making money rules.

My mom has always hung her laundry out on the line (in summer; we live in a northern state). It never occurred to me to wonder what the neighbors thought, but yeah: we were certainly the only family in the neighborhood that did it.

I find the clothes line comments funny, here(Portugal) every house (apartment or otherwise has a clothes line). Well maybe not the really really posh ones. It is just so “normal” no one thinks twice about it.
But other things like eating locally and/or organic, cutting stuff of your life, wanting your kids to have less stuff, using home-made cleaners/beauty products those things definitely cause a stir! And not in a good way, I usually just hear things like “oh it is just a fad” or my favourite “are you poor?” Not wanting to raise my kid as a consumer freak that associates love with stuff = “You are just too poor to buy stuff, here have some slave work rubbish toy.” Sorry going on a tangent here! Really enjoyed discovering your blog :)

It’s funny how in the the US its considered odd to hang your clothes outside to dry, unless you are a hill billy or something. Most families in the UK do this as standard. Unfortunately in some circumstances we have no choice our “wonderful” wet weather being one reason but in this case most people cover every radiator in the house with their washing.This is good because one its works like a poor man’s humidifier, counteracting the horrible air drying radiator and two the house tends to smell nice. The other problem is not having an outside space. Sad to say dryers are becoming more and more popular over here now though.
Really enjoying reading your posts!

Let me begin by saying how grateful I am that you do this! I spent my summers in the rural Black Forest part of Germany, and all of this is the norm! I loved hanging my wash out and smelling the sun dried linen, and the rain water collected was very helpful in watering the garden. I was always dismayed when I came back to the states and none of this was done! You are definitely changing things for the better :)

So funny :) I live in New Zealand. I have a tumble dryer. I’ve used it…. 3 times in 10 years? Most people here don’t use them. I hang washing outside or in the garage to dry (if it’s winter or raining). I don’t know anyone who uses their dryer unless they have an emergency or need to finish off a nearly dry load. Cultures! ;)